Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-09-25
Reef Sug1r.

A sugar refiner of San Francisco,
who draws his supplies from the Ha-
waiian Islands, seeing that the source
is not one to be permanently relied on,
and turning his financial telescope. to
al quarters Of the globe for new cane
fields, fails to discover the object OF
his search. On the east side Of San
Francisco bay, at Alvarado, he finds a
little plant where sugar is manufac-
tured from beets grown in the neigh
borhood, and here he gets new idea.
Thereupon he hies him away to Ger
many and France, where a supply OF
sugar for nearly all Europe is extracted
from beets. He goes to study the in
dustry and the process. So we'll satis-
fed is he with the investigation,
that he has returned home with
the announcement that he has pur-
chased thirty tons OF beet seed in or
der at once to set this great industry
ON foot in California.
This announcement is one of no
SIN all moment to the State. We are
now a people in this commonwealth
of a million and half of souls. We
are, besides, a community whose pres
ent great industry is fruit growing.
Large stretches of our country are ex-
cellent for grazing purposes, for cattle
and milk. Canned fruit and con-
densed milk have come forward among
the most important enterprises OF our
day. Neither can be carried on with
out cheap sugar. Sugar paying
duty to enter our ports cannot be
cheap, and the supply to be
had from Honolulu is mad
equate. The population now
in the State consumes in home use
perhaps $4,000 pounds day. The
retiners here ship large amounts to
the region east of the mountains. The
demand will grow at a rapid pace, for
both home consumption and ship
ment. There is practically no limit
to put to the possibilities of this trade.
The Alvarado refinery has demon
strated that beet root sugar can be
produced at cost which will allow
the profitable sale of the commodity
at a small fraction over five cents per
pound. That is the cheapest sugar
over made in the Union. Beets will
grow in all parts of California. There
is hardly county in the State where
they do not grow to great perfection.
OF course, some soils are much better
fitted to their production than others.
Los Angeles county has wide areas of
the best soil in the world for the pro-
duction of beets. The roots raised in
California, and particularly in South
ern California, are particularly rich in
saccharine matter, and the sugar
made from the beets is equal to the
very best cane sugar. The two COM
modities cannot be distinguished one
from the other. The severest chem
ical tests reveal no difference between
them.
Although the refiner who is moving
in this has his residence in San Fran
cisco and owns large refinery in the
Bay City, that place, nor no other in
the State, will be able to monopolize
the business. Sugar is matter of uni
yersal consumption. If it can be made
equally as cheap here as at atAlvarado-
and that proposition cannot be con-
troyerted-we can compete very sue
cessfully with any refinery which has
to pay even one-half a cent per pound
to get its goods to our doors. Then
again, Los Angeles is nearer to the
country east of the Continental Divide
than San Francisco is, as we have
much better transportation facilities
than that city can boast. Every ele-
ment in the problem gives us the key
to the situation.
One of the greatest industries ever
in the State is about to be
in this manufacture of sugar
from beets. 1t will call into requisition
of acres of land, and it will
nav the cultivators of that land a large
profit. Then it will create great de-
nand for labor in the refneries, and
more important than all it viii give
ms cheap sugar with which to can our
fruits.